A Father's Pledge
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Eleanor Jones
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Can this single dad rise to the challenge? Luke Travis may be a father, but he's never really been a dad to Ben. When the nine-year-old enrolls at the boarding school where Luke works, Luke knows it's time to step up. Except his son wants nothing to do with him. And then there's Kat Molloy, the child therapist whose "help" conflicts with everything he believes about raising kids. Some part of him realizes they both want what's best for Ben — and that same part of him wonders why he's so drawn to Kat despite their differences. But Luke can't risk letting romance get in the way of his relationship with his son…
Prologue
NEVER HAD LUKE TRAVIS felt such guilt before—guilt that sat so heavy on his heart it weighed down his every movement. Waiting there for Ben, his Ben, the nine-year-old boy he had abandoned so many years ago, to arrive at Flight—the special school where Luke worked—was both the best and worst experience of his life. He’d never expected and was totally unprepared for this. And the sad thing was that he had no excuse to give his son. Luke had just been young and selfish and irresponsible, simple as that.
He sat rigid on the wooden chair, drowning in memories. Ben’s mum, Carly, so wild and so beautiful. When you’re young and impulsive, he told himself, sometimes you make crazy decisions, blame other people and just walk away. He knew he had and he wasn’t proud of it. But now he’d been given a chance to make amends, to prove that he could be a good dad. He intended, despite the self-doubt that haunted him, to do the very best that he could for his son.
Luke glanced at the clock again and again as the time crept nearer, three thirty on a sunny afternoon. At any moment his son, the son he barely knew, the son he had left behind by persuading himself that it was the best decision for the child, would walk through the office door. And Luke had no idea what to say to him.
Then the door opened, and there he was, walking determinedly behind his grandma, Mollie, his smooth, young face an echo of Luke’s own, but was filled with anger and aggression.
“Hi,” Luke said awkwardly, offering his hand.
Ben just stared straight through him, as if he wasn’t there. The boy was right to hate him because that was what he deserved.
And then for one solitary, fleeting moment, Ben’s mask of anger slipped. His jaw quivered as his head dropped forward, revealing his vulnerability, and Luke swore to himself that from this moment forward his son would come first. It was time to make amends, to come to know him and to earn his love, no matter how hard it would be.
Luke understood now, without a shadow of a doubt, that walking away from his son had been the worst mistake of his life.
